CREATIVE ARTIST

I am a creative writer who has published poetry and prose, and written and directed a play and short film scripts. Most of these works are creative non-fiction.

I first learned film making skills in a one-year extra-curricula course at La Trobe University in the late 1970s. Before going on to make a couple of short documentaries, I developed and delivered two Latin American History and Social Change through Film courses in the History Department (Institute of Latin American Studies) at La Trobe University (1990s). I studied part-time to gain an Advanced Diploma of Professional Screenwriting (Film, TV, Digital Media), RMIT in 2001.

I am a full member of Writers Victoria and enjoy their professional development courses. I have reviewed, researched and created study guides of work by other creative artists (see select publications below).

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In 2001, I completed an Advanced Diploma of Professional Screenwriting at RMIT — two-year full-time industry-guided diploma covered all aspects of a screenwriter’s craft and business — gaining high distinctions in Script Analysis, Writing for Visual and Sound Narrative, Screenwriting Industry Integration Processes and all three levels of Script Editing. I gained distinctions in Documentary Film Screenwriting (lecturer, Dennis K Smith) and Film and Genre Analysis (lecturer, Paul Harris).

In 1999, I was awarded a Film Victoria documentary mentorship with Lawrence Johnston to write a still-to-be-produced documentary script ‘Sexy, Proud and Dead’. A DVD teaser/pitch of 4 mins has been created for this biographical documentary on disability activist Katie Ball.

Performance: film and theatre

Beyond Money: Yenomon

Beyond Money: Yenomon is an 8-minute short film released at the end of June 2022 and based on Chapter 3 of Beyond Money. I co-created it with film and sound editor Leonie Van Eyk, with photographs taken by Bronwyn Silver and soundtrack composed and performed by Bruce Rogers. The film has been awarded:

It screened at the Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival 2023 Locals night (in my home town renowned for its creatives) and was officially selected (Oct. 2023) in the categories of Best Short Documentary, Best No-Dialogue Film and Best Educational Film for the Black Owl Film Festival (Turkey) May 2024; selected as nominated as a Semi Finalist in the Phoenix Shorts 2023 (June), Sydney Indie Short Festival 2023 (Spring), the Serbest International Film Festival (SIFF) 2023 (5–10 September) and the International Cosmopolitan Film Festival of Tokyo 2023 (April). And, officially selected as a nominee for the Berlin International Art Film Festival 2023, Snow Leopard Film Festival April–May 2023 (Best Short Documentary and Best No Dialogue Film), Art Giraffe International Film Festival 2023 (May–July), Sofia International Film Festival 2024, and NY Arthouse Film Festival 2023 (April).

See film review by Howard Moss, Video review: Beyond Money, The Socialist Standard #1419 November 2022. View and links at the Beyond Money page at this site.

Mercury Stole My Fire

Produced, directed, wrote and narrated Mercury Stole My Fire (2005, 12 mins 12 secs), a short award-winning autobiographical doco. See more at the page here.

Other short films

Co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced The Rhythm and the Line (16mins) with Ruth Williams in 1999. Among other screenings, it was selected for the St Kilda Short Film Festival (May 2000) and Melbourne Fringe Short Film Festival (October 1999). The cinematographer was Janis Lesinskis.

As a participant in a Train the Trainer: Digital Story-Telling course conducted at ACMI, I created Poppy a short (3mins) autobiographical film.

Play: Servant of the Revolution

Creative non-fiction play Servant of the Revolution premiered in Melbourne (2009), was performed in Central Victoria by Red Room Theatre (2016), was presented as a rehearsed play reading the Historical Materialism Sydney conference (2017) and has been translated into German (2017).

Select publications: poems, prose, study guides, reviews and journalistic creative work

Nelson A (2016) ‘Art and money: Money and us’, DanceHouse Diary #9 Special issue on Money, May/June.

Nelson A (2015) ‘We’re all that’s left’ [poem] University of Sydney’s Progress in Political Economy site, 20 February.

Nelson A (2015) ‘$$$$STIPENDS…’, Unusual Work #18 May (poem in unpaginated journal).

Nelson A (2014) ‘As happened on the day’ Unusual Work #17 (creative non-fiction prose in unpaginated journal — performed at launch of #17).

Nelson A and Cole C (2012) ‘Productive creative writers’ relationships: A communities-of-practice framework’ New Writing 9(3): 396–407.

Cole C and Nelson A (2011) What kind of a community is a literary community? Paper presented at the Republics of Letters: Literary Communities in Australia symposium, University of Sydney, 13–14 January.

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Nelson A (2010) The Garden at the End of the World [film study guide], Gary Cagaoff’s documentary on Afghanistan, Lysis Films.

Cole C and Nelson A (2010) ‘Literary communities: Writers’ practices and networks’ in The Strange Bedfellows or Perfect Partners Papers: Refereed Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, The Australian Association of Writing Programs, Guyra (NSW).

Nelson A (2006) Dis.a.bil.i.ty… dis.a.bled… dis.cov.er… Metro Magazine 149, 204–208.

Nelson A (2006) ‘The network society’ [book review] Metro Magazine 150: 222–3.

Nelson A and Addie B (2006) ‘Lawrence Johnston: Once a Queen’ [interview] Metro Magazine 148: 42–5.

Nelson A and Addie B (2005) ‘Lawrence Johnston: The Dream of Love’ [interview] Metro Magazine 146–47 (double issue): 74–8.

Nelson A and Addie B (2004) ‘National identity in Australian documentaries’, Metro Magazine 143: 76–80.

Nelson A and Addie B (2004) ‘Collaboration A conversation with Karin Altman and Michael Brindley’ Metro Magazine 140: 112–7.

Addie B and Nelson A (2003) ‘D K Smith in profile’ Metro Magazine 138: 84–7.

Nelson A (2003) The Original Mermaid (study guide) Australian Teachers of Media.

Nelson A (2002) Black and White (study guide) Australian Teachers of Media.

Nelson A (2002) DIY Law (study guide) Australian Teachers of Media.

Nelson A (2002) Small Island Big Fight (study guide) Australian Teachers of Media.

Nelson A (2002) ‘Yolgnu boy: We want to put our culture out into the world’ Metro Magazine 131–32 (double issue): 118–25.

Nelson A (2002) ‘Identity and intrusion: Indigenous peoples and film representations’ paper presented at the Film and History Conference, Adelaide, 28 November–1 December.

Nelson A (1999) ‘Men with guns’ (film review) Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies/Research 5(1): 138–42.

Nelson A (1997) ‘Tribute to Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’ Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies/Research 3(1): 138–41.

Nelson A (1997) ‘Based on a true story’ (review) Screening the Past 3.

Nelson A (1996) ‘A day in the life’ (review) Arena 25: 53–4.

Nelson A (1993) ‘Ourstory: A simple guide to the presentation of history’ in K Wilson (ed.) A Sense of Place: Shaping Oral Histories, Mount Alexander Diggings Development Association, Chewton: 1–28. (Chapter in book output of a creative radio-journalism youth-skilling Landcare and Environment Action Program of the Department of Business and Employment Victoria and Holmsgren TAFE.)

Nelson A (1992) ‘Making revolution’ (poem) Arena 98: 55.

Nelson A (1989) ‘In absentia’ (poem) in D Brown, H Ellyard and B Polkinghorne (eds) Angry Women: An Anthology of Australian Women’s Writing, Hale and Iremonger, Petersham (NSW): 168–9.

Nelson A (1987) The Runt (teenage novella, serialised on community radio) 3CCC, Castlemaine.

Nelson A (1983) ‘Structures over the corpses’ (book review article) The Age Monthly Review 3(3): 6–7.

Nelson A (1975) ‘I am going away…’ Contempa 2(1) (a long untitled poem in unpaginated journal).